The Hindu Business Line : IDX to connect Kochi with US East Coast

The partners of IDX services which connects India with the US East Coast has announced that it will call at Kochi and other Indian ports on a weekly schedule from January 5.

The port rotation would be Colombo - Tuticorin - Kochi - Nava Sheva - Mundra - Barcelona - New York - Norfolk and Charleston, a press release issued here has said.

The service with about eight vessels of 2,800 TEU capacity will be operated by the consortium consisting of Zim Line, SCI, Emirates Shipping, OOCL and Italia Maritima. Exporters from the hinterland such as Coimbatore, Tirupur, Karur, Salem and Bangalore who normally would have to truck their cargo to Tuticorin to connect this service will now have the benefit of connecting the same vessel from Kochi.

The transit time to the US East Coast will also be reduced substantially as Kochi will be the last port of call in South India. These advantages will help to time sensitive cargo such as garments, made-ups, handloom, coir products and perishable goods, the release said. Since there will not be any transhipment, exporters will now be in a position to commit delivery times to their consignees.

With most of the buying houses and supermarket chains working on just-in-time shipment, these direct mainline services will also assist exporters in planning their shipments to meet their buyers' schedule requirements, DP World pointed out.

To facilitate the carriage of additional cargo from the Concor ICD at Whitefield, Bangalore, DP World Kochi has tied up with Concor to run bi-weekly services to link the Rajiv Gandhi Container Terminal at the Kochi Port.

The first service would be given timely connection to the IDX mainline service to the US East Coast scheduled every Thursday from Kochi.